Next Mars Rover Gets Super-Powered Camera

NASA engineers has finished developing new camera eyes to the agency’s new Curiosity Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2011.

The Fixed Focal Length Mastcam, developed by Malin Space geek-cetera Systems, contains a telephoto lens, and will pan and tilt to provide image coverage around the rover, as well as nearby and further out to the horizon, Space.com reports.

The new eyes will soon be mounted to the rover. NASA originally scrapped a plan back in 2007 to add a 3D-capable zoom lens thanks to cost pressures, the report said. But the agency has since funded the project anyway, and there’s still time for MSSS to develop 3D-capable zoom versions.